Behind them, a large screen that could easily be mistaken for the lookout deck on Star Trek's Enterprise spaceship flashed images from near and around the building.

Several other monitors displayed live pictures from Police Headquarters.

"This is a state-of-the art dispatch center that began operations for the Police Department in April, and for the Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services on May 31," said Mayor James R. Miron. "We take tremendous pride in now having one of best dispatch centers in the state."

Miron, along with Police Chief Michael Imbro, Fire Chief Ron Nattrass and EMS Chief Donna Best, officially unveiled the new $925,000 center Thursday, explaining it is the first time the town has operated a dispatch center for all three public safety agencies.

In 1998, the town started contracting its fire and EMS dispatch work to an outside agency, CMED.

Prior to that, the Police Department, using all civilian dispatchers and a police lieutenant supervisor, handled all dispatching for the three public safety agencies.

Over the past few years, public safety officials have called for establishment of one communications center for all three public safety units. "Ever since Sept 11, a major lesson has been learned in cities and larger towns that having one central point of communications for all public safety calls can help prevent tragedies," Miron said. "We believe that having this central location will provide faster and more efficient response to all public safety emergencies."

Miron said the town received a $425,000 grant from the Connecticut homeland security division to offset the project's cost.

Police, fire and EMS officials hailed the new center's opening, agreeing it would dramatically reduce response times to emergency calls, while also providing better coordination of services during a local, regional or even statewide crisis.

"This is long overdue," Imbro said. "Having all emergency calls coming into one dispatch center makes a lot of sense, especially in the post-9-11 era."

Deputy Fire Chief John Cybart said response times to emergency calls would likely be improved by 1 to 2 minutes.

"We already had a good response time, but this will make it even better," Cybart said. He said the three public safety agencies will know by the end of the month exactly how much response times have improved after all the calls are evaluated.

Best said "having dispatchers on the job who know Stratford, rather than being from an outside agency in another town as was the previous practice, is another major advantage" to the new system.

It is projected the center will handle about 35,000 police calls, 7,000 fire calls, and 5,500 EMS calls per year, making it one of the busiest dispatch centers in Fairfield County, officials said.